Working in the Workgroup Environment

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This section explains how to perform the basic tasks needed to use CS-RCS in a workgroup environment. We recommend you complete this section of the tutorial, which takes about 10 minutes.

CS-RCS uses the GNU RCS status terminology which may be confusing for the novice user. The basic concept of workgroup version control is the locking of files. A file locked by a user is a file which this user has 'declared as his'; he becomes the 'owner' of the file. Such file is marked as Locked - only the owner can edit it and check it in again. No other user may edit such a file - it is protected against unauthorized changes. The file appears with Blocked as its status for all other users. If a file is not locked by any user, it is in the Archived status, meaning it cannot be edited by anyone. An Archived file can be locked anytime by checking it out with the Lock option selected, thus giving the user 'ownership' of the file and enabling editing.

1.

On the administrator's workstation, create additional test files and add these files to the RCS Repository.

Note: The working copy of your test files should be located on your local drive and not on a shared drive.

2.

Open the Document Explorer (refer to Using the Document Explorer in Single-User Tutorial in Getting Started). If you do not see all of your files listed, from the Project menu, select Scan New Files.

3.

Select one or more files. Right-click and select Check-out. Clear the Retain Lock option and click OK. The lock on these files is released. The files' RCS status is changed from Locked to Archived.

Note: These files are now read-only and cannot be modified. CS-RCS works with an exclusive lock method. The file is read-only, which avoids a file from being edited without locking it first. This is to prevent a scenario where two users might be working on the same file, something which may then require merging the changes.

4.

Open the Document Explorer on the second workstation. If you do not see all of your files listed, from the Project menu, select Scan New Files. The archived files are marked New. This means that there is no local working copy of these files on this workstation.

5.

From the Project menu, click Update. CS-RCS will create a local working copy on the workstation disk. A file's RCS status is Blocked for files locked by other users and Archived for files which are not locked.

6.

On the workstation, select any file whose RCS status is Archived.

7.

Right-click and select Check-out.

8.

Set the Retain Lock option and click OK. The file's status is changed to Locked.

9.

Make changes to the file.

10.

Save the file.

11.

Check-in the file to the RCS Repository (right-click the selected file, and click Check-in).

12.

Press F5 in the administrator's Document Explorer window to refresh the screen view. The RCS status of the file that was modified on the workstation is now Updated. This indicates that your local copy is outdated, and you should retrieve the updated revision.

13.

From the Project menu, click Update to update the file.

Notes:

·

For more details on the various RCS statuses, refer to Using the Document Explorer Tool in CS-RCS Tools in the User Guide.

·

CS-RCS can be installed on as many workstations as desired.